Otago Rail Experience

All aboard for the Rail and Bike Trail

Dunedin Railway Station is New Zealand's most photographed building. Opened in 1906, this elaborate Flemish-Renaissance building boasts many stunning features, including a large square tower located on its south-western corner with three large clocks facing the city, Royal Doultan mosaic tiles and intricate stained-glass windows.

However this is not the station's only claim to fame. The station is the beginning and ending point of the Taieri Gorge Railway — one of New Zealand's great train journeys.

From Dunedin, the Taieri Gorge Railway passes through a range of landscapes then crosses the sparkling-blue Taieri River over historical stone and wrought-iron viaducts to the spectacular Taieri Gorge. Then it travels over old bridges and through a series of tunnels, to Pukerangi (Middlemarch), deep in the heart of Otago. Here, high on the vast Strath-Taieri plains, the railway, which once provided a reliable transport service from Dunedin to Central Otago's gold field towns, reaches the end of the line. From here, the Otago Central Rail Trail, begins. Redeveloped by DoC, the crushed-rock ballast has been graded, bridges re-decked and the old railroad transformed into a 150 kilometre-long recreational Rail Trail suitable for hiking, horse riding and mountain biking.